Theresa Opeka
Carolina Journal
The discussion around accountability and transparency continued at the March meeting of the North Carolina Council of State.
As his office continues to audit others across the state, North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek told members that an audit of his own office is also underway.
“We will be releasing to the public a financial audit of our office as well as a performance audit over the next 90 days,” he said. “I really feel like that’s important as we go into agencies and other institutions and organizations across the state performing audits. We want to be transparent about our own office and what we’re trying to do.”
Boliek said he had a good initial meeting with officials from the Division of Motor Vehicles a few weeks ago. An audit of the office is officially underway, and is something that he campaigned on before being elected to the office in November.
“We’re going to start day one with a comprehensive audit of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), and I’m not backing off that,” he told Carolina Journal last year. “I think the people of North Carolina deserve a well-functioning, efficient DMV. It hasn’t been addressed in many, many years. Because of that, I will conduct a comprehensive financial and economic efficiency audit of the DMV, and we will come up with some solid recommendations to the legislature and the governor’s office on how to make that agency work better for the people.”
Current DMV Commissioner Wayne Goodwin announced last Wednesday that he would step down when his term ends. The NC House Oversight Committee grilled him at a hearing the next day about the DMV’s failures.
Boliek explained to council members how the audit was going.
“We’ve divided the Division of Motor Vehicles audit into multiple parts where we will drill down on specific parts of that particular agency to ultimately complete a full floor-to-ceiling audit, and we’re hoping that that helps your next commissioner with respect to some data points and some action items and some commonsense recommendations on how to improve that agency,” he said. “That ultimately is our goal, to have impactful audits that have real meaning, and we feel like this will help to set the standard of our office moving forward of how we can do that.”
Boliek also said that his office has uploaded the initial version of its Hurricane Helene funding dashboard, noting that it marks a change in the role and function of the state auditor’s office, where they intend to work not just as auditors and accountability but as a true watchdog of taxpayer funds.
“We rolled that out, and it’s beginning to be more and more furnished with the data,” he said. “Our ultimate goal is to have at least weekly data updates for members of this council, as well as the general public, to know exactly how funds are being spent both from the federal level, and the state level in terms of Helene recovery. That in and of itself can work as a model for future big projects and future disaster relief efforts.”
Boliek also thanked State Treasurer Brad Briner as they worked together over the last several weeks on some local government issues and our cooperation. He said he believed it would help keep local municipalities viable in terms of their financial matters.
Keeping on the theme of accountability, Briner told the council that one of his first initiatives, when he started, was to request his department’s underlying divisions to report to him about one or two of their key accountability metrics. These metrics are now published on the front page of the department’s website. He also encouraged other members to do the same.
He also gave an update on the Helene Cash Flow Loan Program. They worked together with cities and counties in western North Carolina as his office built the program from scratch in seven weeks. Buncombe County was expected to receive the program’s largest loan, $8.4 million, this week.
He asked members to provide their input on the serious financial issues facing the State Health Plan (SHP) by attending the SHP Board of Trustees meeting on Friday.
The SHP is projected to have a deficit of $507 million in 2026 and $1.4 billion in 2027.
“This is not a ‘let’s hope we can fix it in a couple of years’ problem,’ this is a ‘what we need to fix it today’ kind of problem, and we do not necessarily have all the answers,” Briner said. “So, we invite everybody here to participate with us helping to solve that problem. One of the pieces of the solution to that is likely a premium increase.”
He noted that while North Carolina’s rank as number one for the highest healthcare premiums in the country is not a title to aspire to, the SHP board is likely to recommend increasing employee premiums from $25 a month or $300 a year to $550 a year.
Even though premiums will likely increase, Briner said the average company in the state charges $1700 a year, still making the SHP a great benefit for state employees.
“We are going from one-sixth of the cost of the average company to one-fourth,” he said.
As something that he mentioned while campaigning for the position last year, Briner said he would like to change the way pensions are governed in the state.
There is currently a $16 billion deficit in the state pension plan.
He said he would like to change the current sole fiduciary position, which gives the treasurer total control over how to make investments within statutory limitations, to taking some of the power away and paneling a board of experts, which he said would improve the investments for state employees and the state’s finances.
Forty-seven other states currently use that combination model.
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